Language Learning 2.0: Creating
Immersive Learning Environments
for 21st Century Learners
James C. Chan
Indiana University - Bloomington
Who am I & What do I do?
◦ Director, Center for Language Technology and
Instructional Enrichment
(www.iub.edu/~celtie)
◦ Provide technology support and instructional
services to the teaching/learning/research of
over 50 languages at IUB
◦ Online resources:
 CeLTIE WebRecorder
 IU Foreign/Second Language Portal
 IU Foreign/Second Language Share Fair
Who’re the 21st Century Learners?
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“Digital Natives”
◦ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgsw-NgDoFE
◦ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8
How easy for them to speak a
foreign language!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxDRburxwz8
Reflection

Take a moment to reflect on your own
teaching or the classroom instruction you
saw:
◦ Was it teacher-centered or learner-center?
◦ Did it in anyway address the digital natives’
learning styles?

What do the new technology mean to
you?
◦ Threats/Disruptions
◦ Empowerments/Innovations
Language Learning 2.0 Principles
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teacher-centered  student centered (Little 2007: learner
autonomy)
behaviorist  interactional (Long 1996: the importance of
both 'comprehensible input' and 'negotiated meaning‘); social
interaction and collaboration (Vygotsky 1978, Lave 1988,
Brown, Collins & Duguid 1989)
classroom drills  authentic contexts (audience) for
communication (to negotiate meaning) (Chapelle 1998);
situated learning (Lave 1988, Brown, Collins & Duguid 1989)
classroom learning communities  the target language
communities (Alm 2006)
direct instruction  experiential (learning by doing) /
immersive learning; integrate learning into life
homework feedback  immediate positive reinforcement
Web 2.0
a second generation of the World Wide Web that
enables users to collaborate and share
information online.
 users of Web 1.0 websites, in contrast, are limited
to the passive viewing of pre-made content.
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Web 1.0
Web 2.0
Britannica Online  Wikipedia
personal website  blogging
movie sites  YouTube (video sharing)
brower bookmarks  social bookmarking/tagging
persoanl website  mashups/social media
Language Learning 2.0

using web 2.0 tools to teach & learn a language
◦ 2D: Google Docs
 https://docs.google.com/demo/edit?id=scAARgBZDpF1FaSFC6SgeDw2N
&dt=spreadsheet#spreadsheet
◦ 2D: Online Whiteboards
 Scriblink www.scriblink.com
◦ 2D: VoiceThread https://voicethread.com
◦ 2D: Skype, Gmail Chat
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The Mixxer http://www.language-exchanges.org/
xLingo http://www.languageexchange.org/
Livemocha http://www.livemocha.com/
My Language Exchange http://www.mylanguageexchange.com/
◦ 3D: Second Life
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http://secondlife.com/whatis/?lang=en-US
Meet people
Get educated
http://mychinavillage.uoregon.edu/
Immersive Learning Environments
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A virtual world is a online
community through which users can interact
(role play) with multiple users and digital
objects in real time.
Users take the form of avatars visible to
others graphically in a simulated world
(telepresence).
Multimodal communication among users through text, graphical icons ('smilies‘), visual
gesture, sound, and voice.
Able to support most Language Learning 2.0
principles.
Congratulations!